Leganés to award "Golden Cucumber" to winner of annual friendly
The Primera side host Rayo Vallecano in the Villa de Leganés match, which takes place during the local fiestas, and have designed a unique trophy.
As it customary at Primera División side Leganés, their annual friendly against a local rival is being treated as a welcome antidote to the po-faced of their more illustrious rivals. The modest suburban Madrid side will face Rayo Vallecano, who are based just a few kilometres away, in the Villa de Leganés match, which takes place next Saturday during the local fiestas in the municipality.
To mark the occasion, Leganés have spared no expense and created their own trophies to award to the winners and runners-up – the Golden and Silver Cucumber.
Leganés are known as the Cucumber Growers due to the historical proliferation of the vegetable in the south of Madrid and in keeping with the club’s links to the community are not taking the affair too seriously and the club’s famously inventive communications department came up with the idea to lend the game a little individualistic touch.
But it is far from a one-off gimmick. In fact, Leganés plan to award the Golden and Silver Cucumber every year from now on as they seek to take on the likes of the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu and the Trofeo Joan Gamper on the national stage.
It is not the first time the Golden Cucumber has been wheeled out: Leganés launched their own awards a couple of years ago to run alongside the annual Ballon d'Or ceremony, handing their player of the season the coveted trophy.